Sex scenes in video games today — not a rarity. This item is currently trying to include virtually any self-respecting developer. However, in most cases, the result is a very disgusting and unnatural. But of course there are exceptions to the rule. Take for instance the series “the Witcher” and in particular the final part of the trilogy “the Witcher 3”. And yet, you even can’t imagine how difficult it is to create sex scenes. Even for veteran developers. It was, of course, include “jokes for 300” and the excitement, but the main problem, as it turned out from an interview with Kotaku, lies not in this. The fact is that the technology of video games better suited to the characters in these games fought than making love.
Attention: further in the text includes video sequences, are not recommended to persons under 18 years of age. The article is merely informative and is primarily aimed at understanding the difficulties faced by developers of video games in the process of creating animations of such scenes. Below are the materials are in no way attempting to disseminate pornographic and other interesting things.
The topic of sex in a big-budget game projects come a really long way. Recall the “Gothic,” infamous mod “Hot coffee” for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas “the Sims”. Of the more recent scenes from Dragon Age: Origins and the Mass Effect series from BioWare, and, of course, the series “the Witcher” by Polish Studio CD Projekt. The sex scenes in the last part of “the Witcher 3” in General is very complex and multi-layered in terms of production. They developers have tried not only to convey a realistic “Ahi-sighs”. In many of these scenes are inscribed the elements of the main plot of the game, carried out outstanding job on the script, for the tremendous work of the actors motion capture and voice acting. In General, this was done all so that the people who were their witnesses, and said, “believe.”
“In General, the production process of such scenes is not much different from everything else that is created for the game. Nevertheless, the creation of the sex scenes has its own difficulties,” — says the Director of the cinematic scenes of the company CD Projekt Paul Sverchinski.
It all starts with the script, says Swierczynski. For “the Witcher 3” they wrote the desired text and gave the design team quests, so they were able to work out the right parts, figure out where this scene is going to happen and so on.
“At this stage we are all working together and trying to visually imagine the situation in the frame: trying to think of a story that it will tell, find out why this scene is important here, and not elsewhere,” says Swierczynski.
Then developments are in command of the kinematics, which combines history with animation. Then start the session captures the movements of live actors. Programmers then integrate the resulting material in the game engine, adjust and Polish the animations, the effects, in General, induce gloss.
The main problem, says the developer, is not the juicy details and the conditions you have to work for actors. The main problems are mostly of a specific technical nature and begin to show when two naked characters start slugging each other. If in the frame the characters are away from the eyes of the player, these blemishes usually imperceptible. The trouble in large plans. Video game characters tend to blend together. No, not in a fit of lust, but in the literal sense. Texture one character and find textures on the other. It is unlikely that the scene with the hand of the protagonist, not embracing the wasp waist of your virtual passions, and literally “sinking” in it, be able to cause the effect that the developers wanted to convey to the player.
“This is one of the most difficult and also boring things when creating sex scenes. As a rule, they have lots of big plans, so you have to Dodge this way and that, to end up after the polishing stage was really beautiful, and the animation it smooth. This requires a tremendous amount of patience and time,” continues Sverchinski.
Some character models are not able to perform even the most simple sex positions without manifestations of those or other bugs, complains Sverchinski. Many models, for example, you cannot just raise your arms over your head. In this case, their armpits frankly look like a set of the unchanged textures.
“We try to avoid those positions. Even if in the future they allow us to create the most beautiful views.”
The problem with many big-budget games, which included a sex scene. Even in Saints Row IV, the game seemingly using the topic of sex wherever possible. Unlike “the Witcher”, where the appearance of the main character Geralt globally you cannot change a character in Saints Row IV can be molded into absolutely any way you want. You might find sometimes very strange and does not necessarily need a comical situation.
“Characters of middle size can hold, caress and passionately lash out at other characters without any problems, however when you create a character very big or very small in size and growth, it is here that things become really bad,” says the writer Volition (involved in the Saints Row series) Jeff Belaski.
“Perfect here in any case will not work, so we just decided to live with this fact. The humor in the scenes and the revelation of the characters, in our opinion, are more important than the awareness of the fact that the screen we have presented a perfect picture without any visual discrepancies”.
Allocated development time and available resources may also be a problem. Sverchinski notes that the process of creating a single sex scene can take a very long time, which is more than enough for development and panache kinematics for the three normal quests of the main storyline. And this, in turn, can be superimposed imprint in the form of pattern: several characters in “the Witcher 3” are unique for each associated with this stage of history, while less important characters are content only with a ready template experience.
“Of course, the development of scenes involving the main characters in each individual case requires a unique approach. The relationship between these characters the deeper and more important to the main story,” explains Swierczynski.
It may seem that the developers actually were able to fake and just not have to do extra work, but ignoring the “unique approach” was talking about Sverchinski, coupled with a limited development time can have a much more negative impact on the overall concept of the game, if the developers will try to do everything in a hurry. As an example, he cites the wonderful scene between Geralt and a woman by the name of XI’an from the Supplement “Blood and Wine” for “the Witcher 3”, where the pair engaged thereby, the lad is literally in the clouds.
“We have not been able to do the motion capture of the full gravity, so we recorded the actors in the pool. Water environment gave General concept of the condition of free motion of bodies, the animator, who, in turn, manually painted the whole scene for the game. Such realistic animation is very difficult to create”.
For the Studio’s motion capture sex scene can also be a huge headache continues Sverchinski, remembering to create one of the scenes for “the Witcher 2”, the developers decided to call a pair. Like people agreed at first, but once came to the Studio, once said that “they feel uncomfortable” and generally “don’t want details about their intimate life learned millions of people around the world.” In the end they rejected. Fortunately, the scene, the developers finally finished, she became one of the best in the series, but such moments do happen.
Erotic scenes in “the Witcher 3” was also limited by external factors. Yes, the game has sex, but the game is not about sex. Therefore, developers had to create a game that would fit into the concept of “adult, but not porn” for the set of markets.
“Everything that looks like a vagina in the shot, automatically would put an end to the possibility of the sale of the game,” says Swierczynski.
This ultimately affected what looked like some finished scenes. For example, the time Geralt and Triss when they were making love in front of the lamp of the lighthouse, their bodies blocking the light and thus confusing sea of travelers who thought they someone transmits a coded message. Something I had from this scene to cut to fit in frame skipping, so the final result, as he says Sverchinski, “has lost all meaning.”
Why do we add sex to the game? Of course, for fun! It’s… well, sex! Since the mid-2000s, he became part of almost all really big and Mature projects, from the work of BioWare and Metal Gear Solid 3, while trying to look like some kind of very serious and important thing that the player, in order to witness, first you need to earn it. As a rule, the action takes place either before the final or after the final battle. Of course, this is not always the case. Sometimes it is given as a joke. Sometimes it can reveal both the weaknesses and strengths of people. That is why Sverchinski believes that the addition of the game this item is brand all your investment efforts and challenges faced.
“I wanted to show that in the world of “the Witcher” sex is not always associated with romantic feelings. It can become an outlet, a means of filling an inner emptiness that can haunt, and sometimes even kills,” says Swierczynski.
“People have sex, I have sex, so why should we ignore it in our games?”
You can’t imagine how difficult it is to create sex scenes in video games
Nikolai Khizhnyak